DOVER — On a night when many New Hampshire voters were turning up at the polls to support President Barack Obama, it was actually Democrat Maggie Hassan who received the most support in the Granite State.

Hassan was the top vote-getter Tuesday, besting even Obama in the raw vote count, according to preliminary tallies. She easily won the governor's seat Tuesday, receiving 375,686 votes, and besting Republican Ovide Lamontagne, who received approximately 292,500 votes, according to preliminary results compiled by WMUR. Libertarian candidate John Babiarz also received 19,717 votes, or about 3 percent of the total.

While about 55 percent of all New Hampshire voters filled the oval beside Hassan's name, Obama garnered slightly fewer votes. He received 366,089, or about 52 percent support, compared to Republican Mitt Romney's 46 percent.

One reason for the voting differential could be a gender gap favoring Hassan and Obama, according to University of New Hampshire associate professor Andy Smith, director of the school's Survey Center.

“Our polling was showing that there were about 9 percent of Romney voters who said they were going to vote for Hassan, and only about 3 percent of Obama voters said they were going to vote for Lamontagne, so we were seeing that the crossover vote from the presidential vote down to the governor's vote really favored Hassan,” he said.

UNH's polling shop made a fairly accurate calculation about Hassan's support among likely voters in the governor's race in the days before the election, according to Smith. He said UNH's poll was within about 1 percentage point of the actual projected result.

Joe Cicirelli, chairman of the Strafford County Democratic Committee, said he was happy to see Strafford County “return to the center” in this election, and was pleasantly surprised by the support for Hassan.

“New Hampshire citizens want their governor to be a behind-the-scenes executive who's not extreme, and obviously, I think, they felt that Ovide Lamontagne was just too extreme for their taste for governor,” he said.

Wayne MacDonald, chairman of the State Republican Committee, said he was clearly disappointed with the results, and had expected a much better showing by Republicans.

In the race for governor, MacDonald said various factors came to bear in Hassan's favor, including her experience in the Senate. He called her a veteran of New Hampshire politics and state government.

“I think that served her well in terms of being identified as a leader, a policymaker, somebody who could affect change and run the state,” he said.

While Lamontagne ran a good campaign and has a distinguished record, MacDonald said, he suffered from not having the benefit of a record of results as a public official.

“He's never been in public office, except for his service on the state Board of Education, and I think he was trying to compete with the perception of Maggie Hassan as a leader,” MacDonald said.

“Certainly it's going to be the responsibility of the New Hampshire Republican party to monitor what these Democrats are doing and hold them accountable for the legislation they introduce and the issues they champion.”

On the national political landscape, New Hampshire's election results have caught attention because the state will send the country's first all-female delegation to Congress.

Hassan's victory on Tuesday has also generated a stir because she will now become the sole female Democratic governor in the country.

According to a report from the Huffington Post, the only other two female Democrats, Washington's Christine Gregoire and North Carolina's Bev Perdue, will leave office at the end of the current term.

For Democrat Ruth Ann Minner, the former governor of Delaware, ensuring women can reach prominent roles in state government is essential for continuing progress on gender equality issues.

After serving as a state lawmaker, Minner served as Delaware's governor for two terms, from 2001 to 2009.

“We have a different outlook on what's happening. Men will tell you, 'It's a women's issue.' A woman will tell you, 'It's a family issue.' We think of our families first,” she said Wednesday.

When she was in office, Minner said she worked to appoint female judges and cabinet secretaries, and made sure that women got high positions in other agencies. She also worked with businesses to encourage the idea of having women serve in high-ranking positions.

“The problem isn't just the office of governor,” she said. “It's everywhere. Women don't hold high positions in state government. Women don't get appointed to boards and commissions and things that affect our way of life like men do.”

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